Ended up playing practice sets with a friend. made masterful bh drop volley, not quite 4.5 class but it did raise an eyebrow from pork block on treadmill looking down on courts from fitness center. lost first set 6-3 and was up 5-2 and had 3 set points and double faulted on each one. fail. couldn't finish due to time constraints. left a bad taste in my mouth.

Met up with Jolly to commiserate afterwards at applebees.

Glad i was there to see this spectacle. black hostess was definitely jealous.

I played two tournaments, a 4.0 and an open back in november and i lost 0 & 0 and 1 & 1 respectively. I'm not going to waste anytime describing what i thought happened, because in reality i just got my ass kicked.

On to Holiday tournament. I entered the A singles, B singles, and A doubles with my friend. played A singles match tonight.

computer rated 3.5 - 4-6 6-7 (2)

well that was frustrating. he might have well been part of the wall, he just got everything back. went on serve til 4-4, but what went from easy holds got tougher and tougher. Had a lot of long rallies where it seemed we were both tentative to try to end the point. As the set went on, it seemed like he did a better job keeping the ball deep, which made it take longer for me to make progress into the court and follow it in. This was a winning play for me for two reasons, i wouldn't over hit and i didn't feel like he could hurt me on the pass, the just fluttered up and was an easy poke to the open court. long rallies seemed to get the best of me and my serve finally started sputtering, just too many double faults.

Those long rallies in the first set seemed to help me in the second set as i jumped out to a 3-0 lead, with 2 breaks. i would attribute this to him hitting the ball short so it was a field day with short balls. I think i hit 10 winners in those 3 games, bh dtl, fh dtl, fh cc, it was all working. Then he started getting the ball deeper and it took the easy way away from me. i really had to grind, and just couldn't keep it up. Definitely a combination of frustration and maybe lack of believe that i could just stay in rallies mentally. i'd say it was 70-30 for odds that for every 3 good, aggressive shots i hit, he would get them back half the time, but i would miss the other 7 times. he served at 5-3 and i felt this was my opportunity, but just kinda flailed. at 5-4, i failed to close it out, and he had at match point on my serve at 5-6, but i saved it and took it to a tb. lost that 2-7.

so i just have this helpless feeling that i hit however many aggressive, quality shots, one **** up costs me the point. Then i guess i ease up and a bit push a few back but it doesn't really get me anywhere. so its like, would i rather starve to death or get the electric chair?

oh, so lost in 1st round of A Dubs with my friend last friday. played two solid 4.5 brothers. when down in double faulting and flubbed volleying flames. mostly me. actually all me. im a turrible partner.

Was invited by dali to 4.0 Filipino davis cup practice at ntc last saturday. teamed up with him for chance at epic tt goatness. played kinda tight and served like a 8 yr old girl, but managed to pull out a set in a tb. volleys got better as the night went on, maybe cause the avocado fries started to settle or i just can't miss them all. JoelDali is pure master class. sweet fh, solid serve, hands of a goat. his bh was a little off, but i think he was missing on purpose so that he could appear mortal.

4.0 C - don't remember lol 6-2 6-3? i'll confirm when i go to club for my next match

he's in his high 50's so he played about how i expected. solid fh and serve, weak bh and didn't move to well. if anything, he didn't come in too much.

was able to work points crosscourt. was able to get a few steps in to the court and take it dtl, and close in for a volley. he started moving around his backhand, so i was able to hit it into the open court to really get him on the defensive. my serve was not spectacular, but it was going in, and i started serving wide more often because he was not moving over to cut off the angle. had a few aces into the side curtain which really took pressure off.

he was a lefty, mid 50's, better than guy from first match all around. good forehand, kind of hooks you off the court if i hit too short. good serve, weak bh, didn't really come into too much, or if he did he retreated back to the baseline most of the time.

served well, although i went to deuce on my serve a ton, managed to hold to 4-3, and broke him to serve for it at 5-3. not a lot of rallies at first, put eventually got into to it and just went my bh to his forehand a lot. felt really steady. he did a good job trying to work me off the court. was able to hold my ground for the most part, but still tough the way he could hook it away from me. managed to find a ball that went more down the middle and took it crosscourt to his backhand to get ahead.
maybe got a little tight trying to serve the set out and my fh went off a bit. at 4-5, he served more to my fh and i just struggled to get them back. was down 2-5 in tb but managed to fended off a couple of set points and had a handful before i converted at 12-10.

he started well in 2nd set, broke me and had a 3-0 lead. serve had a momentarily lapse and was down 15-40 at 0-3, but pulled it together. at 1-4, we had epic 45+ shot rally, just my bh to his fh, eventually i hit one into the net. but the damage had been done. he was dead for next 4 games, just slapping balls into the net at times. hit a couple of really nice dropshots too, ball was short and he was so far back and i guess i didn't think he would go for it if i did. He mounted a bit of a charge at 5-4, but i served it out, i found a good rhythm on serve, stretching him out of the court form the start of the point.

oh, so lost in 1st round of A Dubs with my friend last friday. played two solid 4.5 brothers. when down in double faulting and flubbed volleying flames. mostly me. actually all me. im a turrible partner.

Was invited by dali to 4.0 Filipino davis cup practice at ntc last saturday. teamed up with him for chance at epic tt goatness. played kinda tight and served like a 8 yr old girl, but managed to pull out a set in a tb. volleys got better as the night went on, maybe cause the avocado fries started to settle or i just can't miss them all. JoelDali is pure master class. sweet fh, solid serve, hands of a goat. his bh was a little off, but i think he was missing on purpose so that he could appear mortal.

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We didn't do all that bad. Bong (yeah thats his name) is a legendary 4.5 GOAT.

I hadn't played in 5 months and we had epic young Fillipina 4.5 playing next to us and she saw me kiss my Basalt stick at her, she totally caught me blowing her PS 90 kisses. I was totally distracted. And with Jolly on the other court I was completely verklempt.

I had some epic forehands but I could barely serve at all. Except for a few aces. Backhand was a joak. Except for that one epic DTL return pass.

We did ok for never playing together well except that time in the bathroom.

Let me know if you guys wanna come again. They play every Saturday. I'm sure Jolly had fun. Bwagahaha.

We didn't do all that bad. Bong (yeah thats his name) is a legendary 4.5 GOAT.

I hadn't played in 5 months and we had epic young Fillipina 4.5 playing next to us and she saw me kiss my Basalt stick at her, she totally caught me blowing her PS 90 kisses. I was totally distracted. And with Jolly on the other court I was completely verklempt.

I had some epic forehands but I could barely serve at all. Except for a few aces. Backhand was a joak. Except for that one epic DTL return pass.

We did ok for never playing together well except that time in the bathroom.

Let me know if you guys wanna come again. They play every Saturday. I'm sure Jolly had fun. Bwagahaha.

4.0 Davis Cup team.

Funniest schit ever.

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omg hottie. holding the right end of a racquet has never been so hard.

Semis of tournament. Another lefty. had a frying pan serve, served like the king of ike. had a good forehand, no backhand, nice hands. Every backhand he hit ending up being a ceiling ball, which i thought was odd but i guess that's his thing. We would rush the net if the opportunity appeared.

First set was close, we traded breaks the first 4 games. By the end of the set my bicep/forearm was sore, perhaps i've played too much tennis this week (off from work). Sloppy tennis blob. 6-4.

In the second set, he started moonballing more and i tried to be more aggressive but ended up missing most shots long. sore arm and moon balls -> losing patience -> no good for pickle. at the end of the set, i went up an got some ibuprofen from the front desk. hallelujah.

So after a couple of games i could feel it kicking in and i could feel my arm again. dennis may not have trained me to face a retriever, but he did instill in me hitting deep crosscourt (or at least tries). i focused all my pickle energy on taking everything crosscourt. if the ball came back, crosscourt. you're back again? let's go back crosscourt. i think this wore him out, and resulted in more frequent short blobbers, which i took dtl or hit a sharp angle crosscourt into the curtain. i felt like a machine. he definitely threw the kitchen sink at me, chip and charging, trying to run around bh to hit fh's, but neither of those worked too well, because he would come to close to the net and i could lob him and he didn't move well enough that when he hit a fh from his bh corner, i could take my bh crosscourt into the open court and at best he would send back a defensive reply.

Guy had nice kick serve and hands. I could tell he wasn't interested hanging out at the baseline. I think I played well in spurts but couldn't raise my game. Return of serve really was the end of me. Didn't break him. Not once. I started moving in on his serve and that seemed to be more effective but don't think I won anymore points than I did hanging back and going for his feet. Tough. Needed to get more serves in play.

Overall, it was a fun tournament. In all the matches I never fell apart or just broken down. Hopefully with more matchplay and experience, I continue to learn what to do, what not to do, and what I need to do better. Even when I was losing in the final I felt like a tennis player; not someone swinging a racquet.